Whyte makes case for administration

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Rangers on Monday lodged notice of their intention to go into administration at the Court of Session after Whyte realised they had no chance of winning their major tax dispute with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

"From my early days as chairman I saw that administration was a very real option to enable the club to address these challenges and make a fresh start," Whyte told the club's official website. "The case for administration in pure financial terms was compelling but I was acutely aware that such a great institution as Rangers could not be viewed exclusively in financial and business terms."

Whyte revealed Rangers face a potential £75million bill over payments paid into Employee Benefit Trusts, which began in 2001 and ended before Whyte assumed control from Sir David Murray in May last year. And he feels the determination of HMRC to "appeal, appeal and appeal again" would leave them with no prospect of facing a huge outlay.

Whyte revealed there was a "slim possibility" of avoiding administration, with a final decision to be taken in about 10 working days. But he claimed the scenario - which comes with a 10-point penalty from the Scottish Premier League and would all but end Rangers' title bid - was preferable in a strictly business sense.

He added: "It's a bad day for every Rangers fan; there is no getting away from that.

"We have filed a notice of intention to go into administration and we will do that in the next couple of weeks unless a sensible arrangement can be made with HMRC.

"We have been working very very hard to try to come up with an arrangement to avoid this and so far we have been rejected by HMRC.

"It's a slim possibility that something could be resolved in the next two weeks but I think it's more likely that we will go into administration and come out of it a fitter and stronger business and be in a better position to move forward in football terms.

"Any other business would have been in administration long before now and I know that there were discussions previously about putting the club into administration before I came on the scene. In a clear business sense there was no alternative but to take this course of action but we are all Rangers fans and it's the last thing I wanted to do."